PPL announces new international agreements with two Polish collection societies

Music licensing company PPL has today announced international contracts with two collective management organisations (CMOs) in Poland.

Both STOART, responsible for looking after the rights of performers, and ZPAV, which represents the rights of sound recording and music video producers, will work with PPL to ensure that the members represented by each organisation receive royalties for any recorded music broadcast or publicly performed in the UK and Poland.

PPL now has 67 agreements with music licensing organisations in 33 countries. The company’s international service is dedicated to the active collection of money via agreements with other CMOs globally.

Internationally mandated PPL members receive monies when their repertoire is used in the countries with which the organisation has reciprocal agreements. In total, the agreements that PPL has in place represent over 90% of the total global value of performance rights. In 2012, PPL’s international revenues grew from £32.4m the year before to £36.6m (13% growth).

Laurence Oxenbury, Director of International, PPL said: “We are constantly striving to deliver an even better service to record companies and performers , working proactively in a cost effective manner to increase artist revenues internationally. We have continued to invest in the development of our technology to simplify and improve the collections process, to provide transparency in charging and to deliver accurate, timely accounting.

“We are building and maintaining open and robust relationships with our international counterparts, at a time when performance rights represent an ever-important revenue stream. PPL is delighted to be working with both STOART and ZPAV and we are confident that these partnerships can reap positive rewards for each of our respective memberships.”

Agnieszka Parzuchowska, Legal Adviser, STOART added: “We have always viewed PPL as being an incredibly fair, supportive and professional organisation, and are excited about being able to better maximise royalties for our members in the UK market, where we know there is a real interest in genres such as Polish classical and jazz music.

“PPL’s large and diverse repertoire is also incredibly popular in Poland, so we can ensure that those artists are also fairly remunerated for their work. Already we can see that the exchanging of data, sharing of information and practices is working well for both parties, and we hope to build on this positive relationship in future.”

Boguslaw Pluta, Director, ZPAV, said: “Working collaboratively with PPL will help us to open up the British market to our members – something that we are very keen to do. It is our duty to maximise royalties, and partnering with international collections agencies such as PPL is vital in helping us to better represent our members outside Poland.”